(Newser)
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A pivotal Senate committee has approved a sweeping remake of the country's health care system, delivering a long-sought boost to President Obama's goal of expanding coverage. The 14-9 vote in the Senate Finance Committee sets up a historic debate on the Senate floor and moves health care overhaul closer to reality than it has been for decades. Olympia Snowe of Maine was the only Republican to join 13 committee Democrats in voting "yes."

The 10-year, $829-billion plan approved today is aimed at extending coverage to millions more Americans, holding down costs, and improving health care for all. The Finance Committee was the last of five congressional committees to act. It produced a centrist-leaning compromise bill.

Exactly. I'll "settle" for public option, but I really want single payer.

godawgs

Oct 13, 2009 11:38 AM CDT

@fondue the article that I am using as a source uses the Kaiser polls. Asked to back up his claim, Moore's people directed us first to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll in July 2009. The nonpartisan Kaiser is considered by many to be the gold standard of health care polling. In that July poll, people were asked about different ways to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance, and whether or not they favored (strongly or somewhat) or opposed (strongly or somewhat) those options. One of the options posed was: "Having a national health plan — or single-payer plan — in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan." In all, 50 percent said they favored it; 44 percent said they opposed it. So that's what the poll found in July. But Kaiser has posed this very question in six polls dating back to December 2008. The July poll is the only one that shows a majority of people saying they "favored" a single-payer system. In fact, more recent polls seem to suggest the public is getting less enamored of single-payer health care. In August, the same Kaiser poll showed a slightly higher percentage opposed single payer (49 percent) than favored it (48 percent) — still within the margin of error. And the September poll showed 40 percent favor it, while 56 percent oppose it. We'll cut Moore some slack regarding the September poll. It wasn't publicly released until Sept. 29, a couple of days after Moore first made the comment. But we'd like to note something else about the Kaiser poll. Among the eight options posed to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance, the single-payer option fared the worst. For example, 68 percent in the September poll said they favored a plan to require all Americans to have health insurance, either from their employer or from another source, with financial help for those who can’t afford it. And 67 percent said they favored offering tax credits to help people buy private health insurance. The same percentage said they favored a plan to require employers to offer health insurance to their workers or pay money into a government fund that will pay to cover those without insurance. In other words, people weren't asked directly to pick the one option they favored the most. But in an October 2008 Kaiser poll, they were asked just that. There, the public is all over the map. Fifteen percent said they most prefer that "all Americans get their insurance from a single government plan." A similar percentage said they prefer "requiring employers to either offer health insurance or pay money into a government pool." And 14 percent each said their top choice was "offering tax breaks to businesses that do offer health insurance" or "requiring all Americans to have health insurance, with tax credits or other aid to help those who can’t afford it." That's hardly a consensus for single-payer.

Fondue

Oct 13, 2009 11:27 AM CDT

Just my opinion, I think it's better to go with polls prior to all of the health care ad campaigns. Kaiser is the non-partisan poll for health care. Looking their they did a "wording" experiment where 1/2 were asked "would you favor or oppose creating a government-administered public health insurance option to compete with private insurance plans 27% favor, 32% oppose. The other question was “do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered public health insurance option SIMILAR to Medicare to compete with private insurance plans 30% favor, 28% oppose. So a single-payer plan received more support. Link to pdf: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls...